What other contests should there be?

[Makar | 1,946]

I just finished up survivor and started poking around in the weekly competition threads and noticed there are a lot of contests we aren't doing here. So that got me wondering what else people want to see and would participate in. I have some ideas which I'll share below, and would love to get thoughts on. 

 

Would anyone be interested in weekly competitions for more current gen games?  

Or a hybrid type competition where one week it's an NES game, another an N64 game, another a DS game, and so on?

What about doing non high score games? Like Mario kart for example. Pick one track and make everyone race with the same character and kart, etc. Fastest time wins. 

What about a weekly competition with just a focus on speed running games? Fastest time to beat star fox 64, fastest time to beat smb3, etc. 

What about mobile or PC games? Chess tournament, Catan tournament, minesweeper, hearts, liars dice, flappy bird, whatever. There are tons and tons of other games out there.

People have different gaming skill sets. High score games often reflect who has the most free time to dedicate to a game, as opposed to who might truly be the best gamer. 

[Jeevan | 8,910]

well well, this is what I like to see.  @Gloves has said that there can be charms, yet again I think that is the right one  that can be made and handed out.  anyways now that I have been interrupted and forgot what I was gonna say.  I'm not a speedrunner but I can die trying lol.  i like games so I'm down to participate.  

[Gloves | 11,777]

Happy to see discussion and ideas, so feel free to make suggestions.

[Omerta | 47]

1 hour ago, Makar said:

What about doing non high score games? Like Mario kart for example. Pick one track and make everyone race with the same character and kart, etc. Fastest time wins. 

I’ve never played the free NES and SNES games you get with the Switch online subscriptions but apparently you can play with or against people online.

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/nes/

That way you could actually play against someone on Super Mario Kart or something else.

[Jeevan | 8,910]

I'm gonna start working on my idea this week and taking polls for ideas/games/how many people would be interested.  now my contest I thought up will have irl prizes.  haven't gotten those figured out.  maybe that will be a poll as well.  anyways glad we can spur some ideas getting formed.  hope we can get some good things going on here.  also, not all contests should have an irl prize.  I just chose to do this

[fox | 1,667]

forum jeopardy

[Jeevan | 8,910]

6 minutes ago, fox said:

forum jeopardy

im out lol.  if u can create it it can be a thing lol

[Jeevan | 8,910]

13 minutes ago, fox said:

forum jeopardy

ill take purpleganon for 200 please fox

[Jeevan | 8,910]

@guillavoie @BeaIank

Seeing as how you two have been instrumental in keeping the nes weekly's going this year, and maybe prior, not sure, would like to see some input on a question.  What goes into your process for choosing a game for a contest.  Is it mainly playability, love for a game, something you think everyone will love, games that will be the least broken........  Would love to see your thoughts on the process of creating a list for a contest.  I vaguely

Also, if i have questions, may i ask you?  This may range from ways to break games to whether or not you think the game would be a good addition to a contest.

 

Was this really helpful to you, having a group of people talking to you while you made the schedule???  I will go through and look at this thread to see what all happened.

 

[BeaIank | 1,618]

@Jeevan Our game picks for the contest come from a lot of experience, blood and tears from what went wrong on the previous 10+ years of weekly contests.
And even the we are still prone to errors (see Mario Bros).
So the best way is to just try, adapt on the go, put aside games that don't work and keep going forward.

Also, yes, you can always reach me if you have doubts about anything.
Good luck with whatever you are planning!

[Jeevan | 8,910]

thanks @BeaIank maybe u can participate as well!  lol anyways the great Mario bros. incident 2020.  thanks for the insight.  

[Californication | 1,477]

Sega schmups and platformers. 

I beat more games in a shorter period of time taking part in the previous NES contest. I could use some competition for motivation, etc. to get through some of these Sega games. 

[Red | 437]

I've been running weekly contests for the past 3 years during the NES contest's off-season.  2017/2018 and 2018/2019 were Sega Master System and 2019/2020 was Game Boy.  I'd like to do that again this year.  I'm not sure which system I'm going to do though.  I had considered doing a N64 one before and planned out which games would be included, but my N64 collection was (and still is) pretty small, so there were some popular games that would probably work well that were missing.  I thought it would be better if someone more experienced with the system ran it.  I think Vectrex or Virtual Boy could be fun, but since they're not very popular systems, I wouldn't expect much participation.  Right now I'm leaning towards doing Game Boy again, but adding GBC and/or GBA games into the mix.

I've also considered trying to run some other types of contests.  I had an idea for an "identify the game" game a while back in which I would post screenshots of games (and possibly sound clips and character quotes) and participants would try to identify them.  I wound up abandoning the idea due to the rules I wrote becoming overly complicated.  Maybe it would work better as something more casual?  Like just having a thread where anyone can post a screenshot and anyone could post a guess.

 

I'm not sure how many Smash Bros. players are around here, but I think that would be a pretty good game for a tournament.  I don't have the Switch version yet, so something like that would have do be done by someone else (I could do a Wii U one though, if there's sufficient interest).  

[Jeevan | 8,910]

12 minutes ago, Red said:

I've been running weekly contests for the past 3 years during the NES contest's off-season.  2017/2018 and 2018/2019 were Sega Master System and 2019/2020 was Game Boy.  I'd like to do that again this year.  I'm not sure which system I'm going to do though.  I had considered doing a N64 one before and planned out which games would be included, but my N64 collection was (and still is) pretty small, so there were some popular games that would probably work well that were missing.  I thought it would be better if someone more experienced with the system ran it.  I think Vectrex or Virtual Boy could be fun, but since they're not very popular systems, I wouldn't expect much participation.  Right now I'm leaning towards doing Game Boy again, but adding GBC and/or GBA games into the mix.

I've also considered trying to run some other types of contests.  I had an idea for an "identify the game" game a while back in which I would post screenshots of games (and possibly sound clips and character quotes) and participants would try to identify them.  I wound up abandoning the idea due to the rules I wrote becoming overly complicated.  Maybe it would work better as something more casual?  Like just having a thread where anyone can post a screenshot and anyone could post a guess.

 

I'm not sure how many Smash Bros. players are around here, but I think that would be a pretty good game for a tournament.  I don't have the Switch version yet, so something like that would have do be done by someone else (I could do a Wii U one though, if there's sufficient interest).  

I have thought of a game that personally, and a couple others have showed interest in.  I have been working like a dog recently and have had to put it on a hiatus, but will be polling sometime shortly when i get a free day or two where im not soooooo tired lol.  Also, the n64 thing would be interesting for next year maybe?  I would be willing to help out with that if you would want a second in command so to speak, I know @Gloves is interested in this.

Let me know what you think, and I will poll in the gauntlet sometime shortly for a forum game, keep an eye out.  Just gotta hash through some stuff on my end, but I want to offer some IRL prizes myself so that is partly why it is taking a little time.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

Something cool I saw on the racketboy forums is what they call "together retro" 

The idea is that every month theres a game, and people who want to participate just play the game and discuss it. Usually its classics that maybe you havent played in a while or perhaps havent gotten around to playing at all, but it's cool because they community just all plays the game casually together and talks about it. Not everything needs to be competitive 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

On 6/21/2020 at 5:02 AM, Makar said:

People have different gaming skill sets. High score games often reflect who has the most free time to dedicate to a game, as opposed to who might truly be the best gamer. 

I think the same issue exists with speedrunning or racing games as well. You have to learn the game inside out, practice and hope for a flawless run. This doesn't seem too different imho from the current highscore challenges. However, it could be nice to feature a wider variety of games or gaming consoles. (Although there is a slight chance that the different challenges or contests could cannibalize each other)

As for games that are heavily reliant on skill I immediately think of fighting games or maybe certain multiplayer/team shooters and mobas. Maybe also certain roguelikes or rogue-lites as they tend to be extremely difficult and with that added randomization and chance they usually keep fresh, though it might be difficult to come up with criteria for a contest. (That's also the reason why my favorite genre, RPGs, can usually not be featured in such competitions, as they're too long and time-consuming and usually don't feature anything competitive.)

Chess or Catan tournaments sound like they could be fun. Maybe card games like Magic the Gathering would also be eligible? I'm also reminded of a few Youtubers who recently did a chess tournament with one another and they streamed their games. I missed them, but from what I hear that seemed like fun. Maybe certain competitions could be streamed here so that the others can maybe watch or join? That could potentially be more interesting than just seeing pictures of the newest scores being posted?

I also like the idea of something non-competitive without a tight time limit, like that "together retro".

[Reed Rothchild | 9,523]

I dropped the SNES contest because I kinda think we're at gaming contest saturation, honestly.

It could come back next year though, depending on what's going on.

[Makar | 1,946]

13 hours ago, BortLicensePlate said:

Something cool I saw on the racketboy forums is what they call "together retro" 

The idea is that every month theres a game, and people who want to participate just play the game and discuss it. Usually its classics that maybe you havent played in a while or perhaps havent gotten around to playing at all, but it's cool because they community just all plays the game casually together and talks about it. Not everything needs to be competitive 

I like that idea a lot actually. I tried doing that on NA back in the day actually. It went okay for a month or so, and then people lost interest because not all the games were your super popular games. The thing I was trying to do was get people to play great but lesser known games, and then everyone talk about their experience mostly for the first time ever. I say go for it. Make a thread and post a new game monthly or however frequently you want.

12 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I think the same issue exists with speedrunning or racing games as well. You have to learn the game inside out, practice and hope for a flawless run. This doesn't seem too different imho from the current highscore challenges. However, it could be nice to feature a wider variety of games or gaming consoles. (Although there is a slight chance that the different challenges or contests could cannibalize each other)

As for games that are heavily reliant on skill I immediately think of fighting games or maybe certain multiplayer/team shooters and mobas. Maybe also certain roguelikes or rogue-lites as they tend to be extremely difficult and with that added randomization and chance they usually keep fresh, though it might be difficult to come up with criteria for a contest. (That's also the reason why my favorite genre, RPGs, can usually not be featured in such competitions, as they're too long and time-consuming and usually don't feature anything competitive.)

Chess or Catan tournaments sound like they could be fun. Maybe card games like Magic the Gathering would also be eligible? I'm also reminded of a few Youtubers who recently did a chess tournament with one another and they streamed their games. I missed them, but from what I hear that seemed like fun. Maybe certain competitions could be streamed here so that the others can maybe watch or join? That could potentially be more interesting than just seeing pictures of the newest scores being posted?

I also like the idea of something non-competitive without a tight time limit, like that "together retro".

Yea I guess they're different genres and that's moreso what I was getting at. If we did something like Mario kart, you could either have a live competition or make everyone do the same track with the same kart and character. 

I have an idea for a forum style game I think people would find fun. Just gotta get around to writing it all out. 

Board games and card games sound fun too! Some are free online to play. 

Here's to hoping we find another cool avenue of game competition here.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

17 minutes ago, Makar said:

I like that idea a lot actually. I tried doing that on NA back in the day actually. It went okay for a month or so, and then people lost interest because not all the games were your super popular games. The thing I was trying to do was get people to play great but lesser known games, and then everyone talk about their experience mostly for the first time ever. I say go for it. Make a thread and post a new game monthly or however frequently you want.

I think in order for something like this to be successful it should be really popular stuff for a while until it builds a following. I could see "let's all play chrono trigger" or Mario 64 or megaman 2 bringing in some traffic. The first year could be dedicated to classics and then start doing more obscure stuff.

Its something I've been thinking about lately. I may start up a thread some day, who knows haha

[Sumez | 2,950]

30 minutes ago, Makar said:

I like that idea a lot actually. I tried doing that on NA back in the day actually. It went okay for a month or so, and then people lost interest because not all the games were your super popular games. The thing I was trying to do was get people to play great but lesser known games, and then everyone talk about their experience mostly for the first time ever. I say go for it. Make a thread and post a new game monthly or however frequently you want.

I had the exact same experience at another forum that used to have a nice community.

I think we managed to play through two games decently (Flashback and Story of Thor) after which most people ended up dropping out, myself included, and I think the one or two games after those had such little participation that they never really went anywhere, and the whole thing kinda faded.

The idea is really great though. For our events we also had little stopping points for every week where you'd play up till one point and then wait for everyone to have caught up. It's not forced of course, and if you get too addicted no one can stop you from just going on, but it's a great way to sync up the discussion of the more story driven games.

  

10 minutes ago, BortLicensePlate said:

I think in order for something like this to be successful it should be really popular stuff for a while until it builds a following. I could see "let's all play chrono trigger" or Mario 64 or megaman 2 bringing in some traffic. The first year could be dedicated to classics and then start doing more obscure stuff.

I think you need something a little further below the radar than that. Like a revered game most people are familiar with but a lot of people never got around to playing.
Almost everyone has already played Mario 64, and probably already discussed it to death on various forums, so it might actually be harder to get everyone to do another playthrough of that game. It feels more apt for Reed's "Game Debate" threads.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Sumez

[zeppelin03 | 314]

I like the hybrid idea. I'm not really interested in playing a nes or snes game every week so I never jumped in.   Mixing in some N64 or other stuff would give a bit more variety.

There are a number of randomizers now.  Maybe a seed for Ocarina of Time gets sent out and people time their playthrough.  There are lot of other games with them too.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

I think you need something a little further below the radar than that. Like a revered game most people are familiar with but a lot of people never got around to playing.
Almost everyone has already played Mario 64, and probably already discussed it to death on various forums, so it might actually be harder to get everyone to do another playthrough of that game. It feels more apt for Reed's "Game Debate" threads.

That's a great point, the reason I havent participated in many of those discussions is because I havent played a lot of the games. So doing metroid and earthbound and stuff like that might be a better idea

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

19 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I dropped the SNES contest because I kinda think we're at gaming contest saturation, honestly.

It could come back next year though, depending on what's going on.

Does this mean that the SNES contest is cancelled?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,523]

Just now, Gaia Gensouki said:

Does this mean that the SNES contest is cancelled?

It usually starts in January, and I was targeting March of 2020 originally.  I can reassess for 2021, but with the NES, homebrews, game boy, whatever contests, I really have to wonder how many VGS can support at a time.

There were some months where I only got a handful of people, and that was before the scene was this crowded.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

Can we weave in the occasional short contest.  A lot of these challenges and competitions could make nice invitationals.  Just spend a weekend on a game or something without the year long scoring etc.  Might be a better fit for some of us who won't commit to the larger event.